Technical Rear light water leakage

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Technical Rear light water leakage

Frankyie

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Dear all,

My Fiat Punto Evo has some rain waiter leakage going into the trunk. After some extensive investigation I discovered that the rubber foam seal on the left rear light is the culprit. It has lost a lot of its elasticity.


Sadly enough this seal is not for sale. I can only buy the entire unit :bang: So naturally I want to remake this seal myself. Any advice on the material? I know it is 8mm thick, needs to handle water and quite a bit of heat in the summer.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)


My car
IMG_20210810_101615.jpg


Rear light seal
IMG_20210714_115113.jpg


IMG_20210714_115118.jpg
 
I would suggest sealed cell foam rubber.Very much like bathroom type sponge but does not soak up water.Probably available in various thickness`s from Ebay etc.Hope this helps.
 
Changing the rear light seal is not going to stop the water getting in, these Punto's have a well known reputation for water getting in the boot. It affects any from the Grande Punto to the newest Punto as Fiat never rectified the issue. My father's 2015 Punto does the exact same thing, it gets in via the top brake light, runs down the centre of the rear screen & into the boot floor. If you own a Punto from 2005 on it's just one of those things you have to put up with as they all do it
 
i'd be inclined to put a bead of sealant on the bodywork of the car, let it dry and then see if the added thickness then helps produce as seal between the new sealant and the original seal.

The added lip on the bodywork may help keep the water out on it's own
 
i'd be inclined to put a bead of sealant on the bodywork of the car, let it dry and then see if the added thickness then helps produce as seal between the new sealant and the original seal.

The added lip on the bodywork may help keep the water out on it's own

You will have to create a fairly flat surface for this to work. I don't think it will work just not forever.

Changing the rear light seal is not going to stop the water getting in, these Punto's have a well known reputation for water getting in the boot. It affects any from the Grande Punto to the newest Punto as Fiat never rectified the issue. My father's 2015 Punto does the exact same thing, it gets in via the top brake light, runs down the centre of the rear screen & into the boot floor. If you own a Punto from 2005 on it's just one of those things you have to put up with as they all do it

That is encouraging. I also refuse to believe this. My car was completely dry for 10 years. The other rear light still is water tight. It gets less sunlight than the left one. So it definitely can work.


I would suggest sealed cell foam rubber.Very much like bathroom type sponge but does not soak up water.Probably available in various thickness`s from Ebay etc.Hope this helps.
That makes sense. I will try and buy such a thing.
 
Update:
It has been a while since my last update. Sadly enough I am still struggling with the rain water leakage in the trunk problem. This is what I have done so far.

1 Rear light seals replaced
I replaced the seals with new closed cell foam. There was quite a bit of leakage at this point before I replaced the seal. Now the leakage is gone. Sadly enough it had no effect on the amount of water entering the trunk. It is however good to know that this leakage has been fixed.

After a while the amount of water entering the trunk became rather large. The nearly impossible to find leak was now easy to find. The seal between the tailgate and the car body was failing.

2. Tailgate seal replaced
This fixed the major leakage I was getting. Sadly enough the small leakage continued and remains very difficult to find.

At this point I don't fully trust the new tailgate seal. Fiat does apply some sealant inside the new tailgate seal but I don't really trust this. Therefore I would like to remove the seal, fill it to the brim with some kind of new sealant and than put it back on the car.

Question:
What kind of sealant should I buy to fill the tailgate seal with new sealant?
 
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